The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-09-12
AMONG THE T'LINKITs.
Rights of Women In A Queer Alaskan
Settlement.

The first characteristic shall sneak of 70
thelr peculiar treatment of their women,
writes Lieut.. Schwatka to the Independent.
now Inc Indians on one side of the T'linkits
Drutalize their women, making them beasts
OF burden and slaves generally, is too we'll
known to my readers to repeat it at length
mere. The Eskimos, on the other side, are
lar more considerable and Just in their deal
lngs with their women, but the Tlinkints,
instead OF being sort of a mean between
the two, as one might suppose, and as they
are In many other characteristics, go far be-
yond the gentle-natured Eskimo, and a. q
consequence, in the land of the T'linkit a
curious kind of ''woman's rights" exists that
is not excelled even among the nations call
ing themselves civilized. In all their bust
ness transactions, in all their family affairs,
and In all matters whatsoever where it is
possible for woman of the household to
have word to say, her decision is needed to
make these affairs final.
Eyey time man wants to undertake a
business transaction he takes his wife along
with him to ratlfy or veto the bargain, and
should she be absent at the time she NAV
afterwards put in an appearance and upset
the whole affair. Funniest of all, the same
not subject to the same supervising power of
the men, who have nothing to say regarding
the bargains of their wives OF daughters, ex-
cept to foot the bill, if any compensation is
promised by the squaws that the men are ex-
pected to fill. as work, utensils they can
make, or even money, where they can get it
from wife men and understand its value. l
have known several instances where the men
have closed the bargains, only to find them
opened again when the absent wife put i'm an
appearance. AS white men are not very lia-
BILE to undo bargain which they think is to
their advantage, they seldom acquiesce in
the demands OF the woman in cancelling the
contract, and some of the worst personal
misunderstanding between the two races
have occurred on this account. /, of course,
| do not know how the 1vlinkit man Jared at.
| ter he got home from such a bargain; but
think we can all Imagine pretty we'll, Moth.
| ing was more exasperating to me, at times,
upon two expeditions into Alaskan 1888;
| and lSo6-when l came across some man
from whom wanted to buy some trifing
article or to employ for short time, than to
have to start out for the Indian village, prob
ably mile or two distant, to consult his
wife about it, or to bring her to me to talk
the matter over.
Then the succession to the chieftainship of
the tribe is a most singular one, based also
| on "woman's rights" or something akin to it.
Neither the eldest son Of the King and
| Queen. nor the chief and his wife, nor, in
their father to the head Of the tribe when he
| dies, but some one of the nearest male rela-
| tiyes of the Queen is made chief when her
| husbond dies. 1t is easy to see that this Gu
rious and roundabout method of handing
down the sceptre may transfer the crown to
anybody in the tribe, and that there can be
no such thing as true royal succession or
heredi tary descent of the chiefs power.
When the parents, or eithsrlof them, have
died, all Of the effects that they possessed de-
scend by inheritance on the mothers side,
none OF the descendants of the father receiy-
ing anything out of the estate. One would
think that it would lead to some curious
muddles, but somehow they manage to keep
it straight
The same as among all savages, the men
have often two or three wives, and in rare
cases even more; but the women, not to be
outdone in the matrimonial line, have In a
few cases-two or three Of which know Of
personally-two husbands. They are nearly
always rich women, who have had a great
deal left them by inheritance, or who had
made large amount themselves-for, as /
have said, the women do nearly all the bust
ness-and who can afford such expensive
Injuries. One Tlinkit woman, Sitka
woman who went by the name of Mrs. Tom
among the white people, and who had already
one husband, bought another, a slave. for
about 81, 900 in goods and chattels, and when
l saw the two together afterward, / think
he was the best-lo0king one of the pair
When a man and woman marry they try and
adopt boy and girl. If the man dies the
boy becomes the woman's husband, and il
the woman dies the girl becomes the wife of
the man.